Seat of Mars

Earlier this week, I spent a day tasting the Realm 2021 line-up with proprietor Scott Becker and winemaker/partner Benoit Touquette. I also checked out the recent developments at their estates in Stags Leap District and on Pritchard Hill. Since Realm’s fall releases are dropping this week, this is just part one of this article, focusing mainly on the four wines being offered to the mailing list over the next two weeks: The Tempest, The Bard, Moonracer, and Hartwell XX. A more extensive article about Realm’s history and recent changes at their estates will be published later this autumn, along with reviews of the other 2021 Realm wines.

Realm fans will know well that Realm chose not to produce any of their usual red wine labels in 2020 due to smoke taint. This was a difficult decision and a big financial hit for Scott and Benoit, who felt the vintage did not yield wines of a standard worthy of the Realm name. Instead, they produced a one-off 2020 Rosé.

The first point about 2021 was that there were no wildfires to plague the Napa harvest. However, it was not a vintage without challenges. The winter of 2020 and spring of 2021 were incredibly dry. By now, California’s drought was taking its toll on Napa vineyards. Reservoirs were depleted. Feuds broke out between landowners over water rights. More fruit than usual had to be dropped to adjust for what the vines could manage under such dry conditions. In the end, for some, it became a matter of choosing which children to save, as some sections of vineyards had to be abandoned to maintain others.

The good news is otherwise 2021 in Napa Valley was a relatively uneventful, outstanding growing season. Small berries yielded intense flavors with ripe tannins and great concentration without going overblown. The bad news: generally, yields across Napa were small because there just wasn’t enough irrigation water. This is unfortunate news for Napa Valley wine lovers since 2020 was such a small crop, and quality is patchy. Also, 2022 brought another set of challenges likely to impact quality and yields. The biggest hurdle in 2022 was the return of the dreaded Labor Day heatwave, which came back with a vengeance. More on this later in the year—I only mention 2022 by way of giving consumers a tip that if you love collecting Napa Valley wines, you may want to go as large as you can on the 2021s.

From what I have tasted, including these latest wines from Realm, 2021 is an impressively consistent vintage.

“In 2021, gentle extraction was key,” said Benoit. “It was easy for the wine to go too far, to be too much. Ripe but not over-ripe, that’s 2021.”

"We’re now making wines with more freshness, precision, and structure because we’re now in control of all the variables," added Scott. "We’re more in control of our winemaking and fruit sources."

This is an important point. Apart from the new state-of-the-art winery in Stags Leap District, Realm now owns the vineyard surrounding the winery, the recently purchased Hartwell Vineyard, situated above Stags Leap Estate, on top of Wappo Hill, and the even more recently acquired Houyi Vineyard (and winery) on Pritchard Hill. They have also taken over Farella Vineyard in Coombsville. Realm continues to outsource wines, most notably from Beckstoffer’s Dr. Crane and To Kalon vineyards, but they are increasingly becoming estate-driven.

All this vertical integration is good news not just for the single vineyard labels, but for Realm’s larger volume blends. The Bard (Cabernet Sauvignon-based) and The Tempest (Merlot-based) are a well-priced pair of Napa classics well worth snapping up in 2021.

The 2021 Bard is being released this week at US $135 per bottle, which is the same price as the 2019 upon release. A blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, and 1% Petite Sirah, the fruit comes from sites across the valley, including some estate fruit and some sourced fruit.

The 2021 The Tempest has come up in price slightly to match The Bard.

“We almost killed Tempest,” said Scott. “My view was, if we can’t make it distinct, then we shouldn’t make it. Ultimately, we decided that if we were going to continue to bet on Merlot, then we needed to move further south in Napa to find it. This is probably the least creamy Tempest we’ve made, and we love it.”

“We wanted to keep the Merlot fresh and crunchy,” commented Benoit. “This 2021 is crisper and more chiseled. We brought fruit from Oak Knoll and Coombsville for this, and we eliminated Calistoga and Oakville.”

"We’re willing to pay more for good Merlot," said Scott. "It will be interesting to see the reaction to this departure."

I love it. This new-styled 2021 Tempest is a shimmery, beautifully defined, and solidly built triumph from a region that often struggles to produce exciting Merlot.

With the 2021 vintage image change, Realm is presenting a bright, modern new label for The Tempest, created by the UK artist Richard Twose. This year’s blend is 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Malbec.

Also being released is the 2021 Moonracer, a single vineyard wine from Realm’s estate vineyard in Stags Leap District. “The wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon this year because the vineyard is being replanted,” said Benoit. “The Merlot and Cabernet Franc were pulled, and the new plantings aren’t in production yet. By the time we’re done, we will have replanted all this vineyard. Then a true footprint of the place will be in this wine.”

The jewel atop Moonracer’s Vineyard is the 1.5-acre estate-owned (since 2020) Hartwell Vineyard. The vines originate from budwood acquired by Bob Hartwell from Dick Grace of Grace Family Vineyards in the 1980s. “This is the first year of us getting our hands around the farming,” commented owner Scott Becker.

Only 150 cases were made of the 2021 Hartwell XX Cabernet Sauvignon.

A couple of wines not made in 2021 are the Cabernet Franc-based wines. Falstaff is only made in exceptional/inspirational years and was not made in 2020, 2021, or 2022. Meanwhile, the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Franc label will not be made anymore. “We only used to make about 100 cases of this, but now we have decided to blend this in with the To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon,” said Scott.

In other Realm news, there is a new one-off label in the pipeline this year, to be offered with the spring releases in 2024, along with the other single vineyard wines and, of course, The Absurd.